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Letter: The Bill Gates vaccination conspiracy

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 17, 2011 file photo, Microsoft founder Bill Gates holds a vaccine for meningitis during a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. On Friday, May 8, 2020, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly asserting Bill Gates’ former doctor says the vaccine advocate refused to vaccinate his own children. Gates’ wife, Melinda, debunked the false claim when it circulated in April 2019. “All three of my children are fully vaccinated,” she said in a Facebook post addressing World Immunization Week. “Vaccines work. And when fewer people decide to get them, we all become more vulnerable to disease.” (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

One of the more off-the-wall items making the rounds on the internet and social media these days is the Bill Gates vaccination conspiracy theory.

The story has its roots in QAnon, InfoWars and other alt-reality sites. The people proliferating this via YouTube videos and memes readily believe that Gates is using his wealth, not as philanthropy to make the world a healthier place, but rather to nefariously control population growth or even individuals through a guise of vaccines that really contain microchips that will track our every move.

From my observation, many of the same people forwarding this information are fervent followers of the current occupant of the Oval Office. They choose to believe a man who has told 18,000 falsehoods since taking office, who’s “charitable foundation” was shut down because of fraudulent use of the funds for self-enrichment, who’s cheated on all of his spouses, and paid off his paramours to buy their silence, has been chosen by God to lead us to greatness.

To say we’re now living in Bizarro World is a gross understatement.

Bill Hooper, Taylorsville

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